Inimitable

“Do we have to go?” Tony murmurs, looking up at T’Challa.

T’Challa sighs, running his fingers through Tony’s hair. “No, technically we don’t but it would be useful for you to get to know the country and people are expecting us. But if you’d like we can go home,” he says softly.

Tony laughs at T’Challa’s misunderstanding, “I meant we could just stay in bed forever but you know, in bed forever could happen at home,” he says.

“You called it ‘home’,” T’Challa says, smiling wide.

He shrugs, “if I’m honest its more of a home than anything I’ve ever had,” he says. Better than Howard’s house, better than any of the homes he tried and failed to make for himself. He leans up a little, pressing a soft kiss to T’Challa’s lips. “It also helps that you’re pretty hot,” he adds.

“Pretty hot? I will have know that I am the epitome of Wakandan beauty,” T’Challa tells him, sticking his nose in the air.

Tony snorts, “Wakandan beauty standards would probably change just to suit your face,” he says and T’Challa makes an offended noise that basically proves him right. “In your country’s defense they have taste,” he says, kissing T’Challa again. Pleased with this development T’Challa lays back, bringing Tony with him. He goes, allowing T’Challa to pull him forward and he swings a leg over T’Challa’s hips, straddling him. T’Challa makes a pleased noise at this.

“I’m beginning to rather like this plan of staying in bed,” he murmurs to Tony.

*

“We are headed to the mining tribe,” T’Challa tells him. “They will be suspicious, probably harsh though less so with me around. But I thought I should break up the more… difficult tribes rather than sending you into them all at once,” T’Challa explains.

He nods, “any chance those were the people that weren’t pleased with my presence in that vibranium train?” he asks.

“That would likely be them, yes. There would be others too, people from the metropolitan areas around the mountain but they would sooner side with the miners than you,” he says. “They will likely be less hostile with me standing next to you, though.”

“Doesn’t matter if they aren’t- they can’t really say anything I haven’t heard before. Besides that I guess they have a right to be suspicious.” Americans were suspicious of more people for less reason than the average Wakandan.

“Having a right to be suspicious is no reason to be cruel, Tony. And just because you are used to mistreatment does not mean you should accept it. You deserve better than that,” T’Challa tells him, looking over at him for a moment.

“You know most people just tell me I have a chip on my shoulder,” he says. Usually in a snide tone and usually while looking down on him either figuratively, literally, or both.

“You do, but from what I’ve learned you’ve earned that chip. If people treated me the same way they have treated you I would also be suspicious of those around me. And unlike everyone else around you you have mostly internalized that suspicion,” T’Challa says.

Sure, but that’s because its easier not to mention safer to keep an outward suspicion without actually doing much to act on it. Keeping mostly to himself means he’s less likely to get into trouble not that it always works out that way. He sort of has a big mouth. “I actually lived a pretty good life. I mean yeah people consistently underestimate my ability to do literally anything but that’s better than that plus being poor, from a shitty neighborhood, a woman, and any race but white. All things considered I’m lucky.” He’s seen what poverty alone could do to people- no one survived conditions like that, not really. Thank god T’Challa is rich because Tony is not meant for life as a poor person. His experience with Rhodey is about as close as he ever wants to get to that, thanks.

“Just because people have lived worse lives than you doesn’t mean you haven’t suffered. And someone else suffering more doesn’t do much to help you, does it? The miner tribe will behave themselves,” T’Challa says in a determined voice.

“I appreciate your standing up for me but really, its nothing all that new, I can handle it,” Tony tells him.

“I know. But you shouldn’t have to. We should probably let Concrete stretch her legs though, before she starts yowling at us again. Clearly she gets her vocal nature from you," T'Challa says.

Tony eyes the cat carrier and raises an eyebrow, "pretty sure a cat can't get anything from me genetically. I hope," he mumbles more to himself than T'Challa. Probably because he has a strange image in his head of a cat-like version of himself that he never needed in life.

"You know what I meant," T'Challa says. "No go get the cat and make sure she's on that harness. I don't feel like climbing trees."

*

The hostility isn’t open but Tony can feel it lingering under the surface. T’Challa had been right about people behaving themselves around him at least but when his back is turned Tony gets dirty looks he doesn’t appreciate. Its some random kid that’s the one with enough guts to say what everyone is thinking though.

“You’re not going to tell anyone about the vibranium, are you?” the child asks, suspicion high on his features. He’s dressed in the various reds and oranges that seemed to be prevalent here in particular. The merchants had preferred purple from what Tony gathered though he’ll ask T’Challa about it later.

“No,” he tells the kid. “I don’t really have much motivation to,” he adds.

“What, you don’t want to bring glory to your country?” the kid asks and Tony snorts.

“If my country wanted glory from me they wouldn’t have sold me off like livestock in an attempt to get the vibranium that, as far as they know, doesn’t exist,” he says in a bitter tone.

A woman to his right raises an eyebrow, “so you have a problem with being sold off like livestock, but accepted like livestock?” she asks, tone harsh. T’Challa winces a few feet away and Tony senses that he’s just hit some kind of sore spot with these people but he has no idea what and T’Challa doesn’t look much willing to help him out with this. Useless husband.

“I have a lot of problems with that too, thanks. But that’s between me, T’Challa, and the king.” Its not like the rest of the country is much affected by his marriage, not if he’s unwilling to give up Wakanda’s secrets anyways.

“And what exactly do you think of T’Challa and the king?” she asks. Tony looks over to T’Challa, confused on what the hell is happening here but he’s resolutely not looking at Tony. He rolls his eyes at T’Challa’s lack of help, which gets a pretty surprised reaction from the people around him, kid included.

“I think T’Chaka is a good man with some… misguided solutions to his political problems. And T’Challa has owned up to his part in all this and apologized. Its doesn’t really change how I got here, but it helps that he at least understands what he’s done,” Tony says honestly. He doesn’t know if that’s what anyone is looking for, if they’re looking for anything from him really, but when the people around him seem to relax a little, giving him somewhat impressed looks rather than hostile ones he’s fairly certain he’s done something right.

The people gathered around exchange a few looks before speaking. “You are not what I expected,” the woman who first spoke- Tony assumes she’s important to the community or something- says.

“What were you expecting?” he asks.

“Someone demure and accepting of their own oppression. We are not ignorant to global stereotypes,” T’Challa tells him.

“Though apparently some of us are willing to play into them,” the woman says to T’Challa, tone harsh. He winces again but says nothing in his own defense.

Tony opens his mouth to defend him but thinks better of it. Its not like they’re wrong for being angry with their prince for accepting this bullshit ruse of a marriage even if Tony is sure something real is developing out of it. “Is… there a particular reason you’re all so upset about this?” he asks, frowning. There has to be some kind of cultural clue he’s missing, something that doesn’t exist with the merchant tribe obviously given that they expected him to be grateful for his new position.

T’Challa frowns, “you can’t smell it?” he asks and Tony shakes his head. Obviously fucking not- not over the scent of the sweet flowers around the town they’re currently in anyways. “They’re-” he starts but he’s cut off.

“We can speak for ourselves thank you. We’re mostly omegas,” the woman tells him. “Don’t look so surprised- mining is a difficult job for those who are not used to the heat. We’re better suited for the job than most, could you imagine the merchants in there? They would die,” she says, shaking her head and Tony laughs.

“I don’t actually doubt that,” he says. Lovely people, but they didn’t seem the type to do well in that kind of job. Hell despite being ‘better suited’ for the position Tony doesn’t think he’d do well in the mines either.

Thankfully things are a little less tense after that though its clear the people here are still suspicious, of all people, T’Challa. Tony had been expecting more resistance to his presence and while the suspicion around his presence lingers some it mostly seems to have disappeared. “You did well,” T’Challa murmurs to him. “I didn’t anticipate that being a problem at all, the omega thing.”

Tony snorts, “clearly someone hasn’t had to deal with the stereotypes and oppression that comes with it. I’m guessing something like that existed here at some point if these people have some kind of anxiety around my being an omega and married to you,” he says.

T’Challa sighs, “not a long history, no. But briefness aside it was brutal and the omega population suffered greatly. I suppose I can see why our marriage would cause problems considering that,” he says.

“It didn’t occur to you that you’d offend your entire omega population?” Tony asks, floored on how such an oversight could happen. It seems to have bypassed T’Chaka as a problem too for some reason.

“No. We don’t treat hem badly,” T’Challa says.

“Anymore,” Tony corrects. “Anyone who’s found themselves on the pointed end of a government stick lives in fear of that happening again. Next time consider the wider political context of your decisions and how to properly address that before marrying people,” Tony tells him.

“Wakanda is mostly monogamous,” T’Challa tells him and Tony squints, wondering how T’Challa could have arrived there of all places.

“Clueless,” N’Yami says, shaking her head. She’s a tribal leader, he’s learned, and apparently unafraid to put T’Challa in his place, which he finds amusing.

“He’s trying though, give him some credit. I got a cat out of the deal,” Tony says, pointing to Concrete trying to avoid children by remaining in a tree that T’Challa will no doubt have to rescue her from later.

N’Yami looks over to the cat and raises an eyebrow, “did he explain what cats mean here? because the merchants say he somehow managed to miss telling you about the origins of the country,” she says.

Tony laughs, “yeah I got the rundown on your cat gods. T’Challa got a lovely lesson on why America thinks cats are basically evil incarnate.” N’Yami gives him a horrified look and he laughs again. “I’m not saying I agree- I love cats. It’s the rest of my culture that’s weirdly obsessed with dogs,” he says. And any pet that doesn’t act like one had some kind of problem with it, but especially cats. Even the animals in American movies acted like dogs no matter what they were but Tony is most disturbed by horses acting like dogs. Americans needed to put aside their stupid views of cats to attack the real enemy with no soul- the horse. Those things, Tony swears, are the most disturbing animals on this planet. Their legs are basically specialized fingers and they run around on their toenails all day. That is the kind of animal that should not be trifled with.

“This one is not awful,” N’Yami tells T’Challa. “But I do hope your father considered the potential fallout of what he now knows.”

“America isn’t going to find out about the vibranium,” Tony assures her. “And if they do, by chance, I’ll make damn sure they don’t get it from me at least. I don’t take kindly to being used as a trades tool.” Though ‘trades’ is probably too nice a term for it- America has a bad habit of taking what they want regardless of agreements. It has, after all, served them well in the past to do that kind of thing.

She considers this for a moment, “good- then you will have no problem ensuring T’Challa issues an apology to the omega population in regards to this absurd marriage,” she tells T’Challa mostly even if the words were technically to Tony.

He opens his mouth to respond and Tony knows its going to be something stupid so he steps in, “I’ll make sure he works on it,” he tells her, smiling. She gives him a nod and walks off, headed towards poor Concrete in the tree.

“Do I really have to apologize?” T’Challa asks.

“For not considering the political implications of a forced marriage to someone in a marginalized population as some kind of political trade? Yes, T’Challa, you do. Just tell them what you told the merchants and that you have no interest in being an asshole to omegas, it’ll help you out in the long run considering you actually are sorry for your part,” Tony tells him.

“I don’t regret it though, and I would do it again,” T’Challa says.

“Even if you had a better way to achieve our relationship?” Tony asks, already knowing the answer to this.

“Well no, I would have preferred an actual relationship with you before marriage but-” Tony cuts him off.

“Then there you go- you thought this marriage would solve problems it probably won’t, made a misguided decision based on it, learned that maybe you did something dumb, and its not something you’d repeat even if you don’t regret what came of the marriage. Just tell everyone else that,” Tony says.

T’Challa sighs, “I hate public apologies,” he mumbles.

“Don’t we all?” Tony asks. They aren’t exactly his forte either but sometimes they’re useful even if most of his public apologies turned into fuck yous. T’Challa is probably more diplomatic than that, though.

*

“That wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it’d be,” Tony tells T’Challa. What he’d been expecting was more… harsh. The suspicion didn’t really leave, but it wasn’t as bad as when he first got to this area of Wakanda either.

“They reacted well, yes. But you addressed their concerns well too,” T’Challa says.

Tony frowns, “I don’t know how I managed when someone was utterly useless,” Tony tells him, giving him a pointed look. Every time he looked to T’Challa for some kind of help or context he was looking anywhere but at Tony.

“I had to let you answer on your own, it would have looked coached otherwise,” T’Challa says.

He snorts, “oh nothing I say sounds coached, trust me. Mostly because I never stick to the cards. That still could have went terribly if I didn’t give whatever arbitrary answer would have been seen as correct,” he points out. Guessing what people wanted to hear in a culture he doesn’t understand isn’t exactly easy.

“I knew you’d tell them what they wanted to hear- they were concerned about omega rights and you’re quite vocal about your rights. It was a situation you couldn’t have messed up,” T’Challa says.

“Yeah, you don’t know me that well. Once I tried to boil water and accidentally blew up my friend’s mother’s kitchen. I fuck up the simplest of tasks but we can just be happy I didn’t manage to botch this one.” He doesn’t want to think of the possibilities of his messing up something so important for both himself and T’Challa. “Does make me wonder where all the insults and vitriol went, though,” he says.

“I doubt people would be so bold as to insult you in front of me,” T’Challa says but Tony shakes his head.

“One guy braved your father so your presence probably only does so much,” Tony says. Not that T’Chaka reacted well to it of course, but if people are determined they’ll say something. So why not now?

T’Challa considers this for a few moments, “how did you react to… whatever before?” he asks.

Tony shrugs, “mostly I ignored it. I can’t be insulted by something I don’t even understand,” he points out.

T’Challa sighs, “I suppose I should have known that, you’ve alluded to it. People probably thought you were weak willed and complicit in your own oppression, then. Its not something they would have found… palatable.”

Tony squints, “so they reacted with another round of oppression? That makes no fucking sense.” In what world- yeah, alright, Wakanda has some issues to work out. “So what, now they’re less willing to be assholes because… why, exactly?” he asks.

“Because they’ve seen the way you actually act. I doubt any of them would have guessed that your lack of a reaction was simply because you decided caring about what people say in another language is not relevant to you,” he says. “They might now.”

That has got to be one of the dumbest things Tony has ever heard and one guy told him omegas were inherently stupid because their brains got baked once a month. Obviously no one informed that guy of basic biology- clearly they’re able to withstand that temperature without actually baking. Because if they did they’d be you know, cooked. “You’d think if they thought I was complacent in my own oppression they’d help me out or go after whoever or whatever was enforcing that oppression but sure, further marginalizing me makes total sense. You should add that to your public apology,” Tony says and T’Challa laughs.

“And there’s the reaction I thought I would see from that. You don’t seem much like a public apology kind of person,” he says.

He’s not. “There’s a time and a place for an apology and its when you mean it, not whenever someone decides that you should be sorry for something,” he says. Otherwise the apology feels cheap and forced. There’s few things he’s apologized for in life because of that, but most of them were things he should have realized were wrong far before he did. Regardless he still hates public apologies and he hates politics even more.

“I agree, but politics does not lend itself to that. And I had no idea that I’d end up apologizing to the omega population in the country,” he says, shaking his head but Tony rolls his eyes.

“Not considering what this marriage would mean to them is pure stupidity on your part. Sorry,” he says, not sounding very sorry at all.

“How was I to know people would be upset?” T’Challa asks.

“Maybe when you used a historically marginalized group as a political tool without actually considering the people in the group and what they think and feel let alone me specifically. I mean come on, who considers a marriage without actually considering the other person in the marriage? Use your head T’Challa, you’re not stupid so don’t act like it,” Tony tells him.

T’Challa sighs, “I suppose you have a point. I just didn’t think omegas here would react… well, like you did in the beginning. They don’t directly share your history,” he says.

They didn’t need to but what would T’Challa know about that? Its not like he’s much had to consider things- clearly betas and alphas didn’t have the same history of oppression here either from what Tony has gathered. Its natural, albeit stupid, that he hadn’t considered things past his own assumptions. “Let me boil this down for you some. Say you’ve had a shitty relationship- maybe it didn’t last long but it sucked while it did. Do you go on acting as if that moment never happened in your life or do you remember it forever and develop trust issues?” he asks. “This is just that on a wider scale. Maybe not a lot of omegas have experienced whatever history of oppression they had in Wakanda directly. But they all have the memory of what happened when they did, and they all worry about that happening again. Especially after what was, by even your admission, a hastily thought out and ridiculous marriage that does more to reinforce their fears than solve them.”

The fact that T’Challa considers Tony’s explanation says a lot about him because most alphas wouldn’t have even let Tony finish his sentence let alone his explanation. Though its Rhodey he had to thank for how to describe how he felt. Tony, like T’Challa, had been kind of a moron about racism and Rhodey honestly has more patience than he should. Tony would have smacked the shit out of himself if their situations were reversed.

“They have to know that history will never repeat itself- not because of me anyways,” T’Challa says, frowning.

“Obviously they don’t,” Tony says. “Maybe you should consider why. And also tell them that they’re reactions to me were fucking stupid.”

T’Challa winces, “to be fair they probably would have been nicer if you weren’t American,” he says.

Tony rolls his eyes, “tell them that’s stupid too.” He has no damn patience for such ridiculous opinions and assumptions, never really has. Which makes his reactions to Rhodey when they first met ironic, but he’d never claim he isn’t a hypocrite. He’s aware of his personality flaws. All his entire personality full of them.

*

Tony curls up with a book feeling like a damn twit because it’s a children’s book but T’Challa insists that he starts with something basic. He’d rather jump straight to the scientific development part of learning this language but T’Challa told him to talk to Shuri about it when he mentioned it. Concrete is not pleased with Tony’s holding the book over petting her and is currently rubbing her face on the corner of the book for attention.

“Go rub your face on other stuff,” Tony tells the cat. She doesn’t listen, which isn’t surprising but Tony still sighs.

“We are going to the river tribe next,” T’Challa tells him, picking the cat up and sitting next to Tony. He settles the cat into his lap and she allows it because it results in her being pet.

“Anything I should expect?” Tony asks, leaning into T’Challa’s side.

“Probably not, no. It’s the border tribe I am most concerned about though a good friend of mine is currently an acting leader in that community. Unfortunately we disagree on your presence in the country so we will see what he cares more about I suppose- my friendship or his opinion that Wakanda never should have opened itself up to the world.” T’Challa sounds conflicted himself but that’s probably because of the personal aspect or the situation.

“Great. So I get a tribe that probably won’t care too much about me and then one that’ll hate my guts. Sounds lovely,” Tony says sarcastically.

“I will be here for you,” T’Challa tells him softly and Tony snorts.

“Damn right you will. Also didn’t you say there were five tribes- where’s the fifth in the tour?” he asks.

T’Challa laughs, “that one you already met. It basically consists of my family- there are more of us obviously but you’ve met everyone who is extra important,” he says.

Well, Tony thinks, that’s a relief. “So uh, is there anything decent I can expect out of the border tribe?” he asks.

“They have really cool blanket things that I can’t remember the proper name of at the moment that also function as digital shields thanks to the vibranium woven into the fabric of the blanket… scarf… You’ll know them when you see them,” he says. “They’re pretty neat.”

His interest is piqued. “I’m so stealing one,” he says, earning an offended noise from T’Challa. “What? I’m American, it’s what we do,” he says.

“Do not do that!” T’Challa tells him.

“What if I leave them Concrete in its place?” Tony asks.

“Tony, no!” T’Challa says, looking horrified.

He sighs, “you just had to suck the fun out of that,” he mumbles. “This is why you like me better,” he says to the cat, who takes this as her cue to crawl into his lap from T’Challa’s.

“Traitor,” T’Challa accuses.

Tony snorts, “she’s not a traitor, she just knows who loves her best,” he says, nose in the air.

“Says the man who is prepared to trade her for a blanket,” T’Challa says.

“For a really cool blanket shield scarf thing that I’m now super interested in because that’s a really weird description of it.” What does it look like? Tony doesn’t know but he wants to find out.

“This is what I get for forgetting the proper names for clothing,” T’Challa mumbles.